Do You Need a Fitness Tracking Device?

Dear Dr. Adrian,

Do you have advice for me (a runner) on activity trackers? Which trackers do you think I (a runner) might find most useful? And which trackers yield information that you (a service provider) would find useful in serving me? And what constraints do HIPAA or other laws impose on the ability of patients and doctors to share data collected by activity trackers?

I've seen Nike's FitBit as being one of the more popular brands with athletes, and seems to have a lot of features that can be useful. For instance, trackers are great in measuring your workload during the day/week/month if you are training for an event, or simply need a measurement of your progress because you are trying to improve your HR or time on a course. In my opinion, if a person is already active, and pursues activities for enjoyment, a tracking device is unnecessary and progress can be measured roughly by their time on a course or the longevity of an activity. If you are interested in seeing the change in your body's ability over time, trackers will be precise in measuring your HR, calories, distance covered, and GPS. In reality, it's nice to have, but not a necessity. Definitely more of an accessory. Trackers may be helpful if someone was borderline or unsure of how much to achieve intensity of an activity over time, or is trying to lose weight by counting the calories burned versus consumed. So this may be helpful for maintaining accountability and reporting progress to an online journal that can be shared freely to your peers or doctors. Doctors have to comply by HIPPA laws to not share certain patient information to the public or private parties (unless under consent by the patient). So there is no limit to whom a consumer can share their tracking information to, but the doctors have HIPPA compliance to abide by. Bottom line, nice accessory, lots of features. Will it give you incentive to be more active or more intense? If it would, then it's a good buy. If not, then it's a nice toy to have.

#fitbit #exercisetracker #monitors